Vampire in Geek's Clothing (Psy-Vamp Book 6) (10 page)

Lying on Isaiah’s bed, Nikki watched as he stretched, sweat
glistening on his skin. Basking in the afterglow, she could almost pretend all
of her problems were over. She could almost believe a future with Isaiah was
possible, but the rational side of her brain wouldn’t allow her to fall into
that trap. Most would consider any relationship between them unnatural. There was
also Andrew to consider. The cousin Isaiah hated, just happened to be her old
friend—a friend she’d slept with. There had never been anything even remotely
romantic about their relationship, but it had to be weird for Isaiah.

“Give me a minute to take my contact lenses out,” Isaiah
said before disappearing into the adjoining bathroom. When he returned, his
eyes were an icy blue. Had she seen those eyes the first day he’d walked into
the coffee shop, she would have recognized him as a vampire. Those eyes were
the exact shade as Andrew’s. Now, looking at Isaiah, she could easily see the
family resemblance. It was funny how a few minor changes could make someone
appear so different.

“You dyed you hair,” she remarked.

He nodded. “I needed to look different for the job, just in
case anyone recognized me. I’m not exactly famous, but I’m fairly well-known in
corporate security.”

“How will you handle things with your company when you reach
the point where people notice you don’t age?” she asked, curious about how vampires
dealt with that sort of thing. Hunters and breeders dealt with similar issues,
but they tended to be employed in fields where they could easily remain in the
background, or where they only dealt with others of their kind. “I’d assumed
you were in your twenties, but I guess you could be any age.”

“I’m quite a bit older than my twenties,” he admitted before
grabbing a pair of glasses from one of his drawers. “The situation hasn’t come
up for me before because I was mostly in the background. In the early stages of
my business, I had others do all the face-to-face meetings, and the rumor mill
helped me explain my lack of public appearances. Somehow, word got around that
I was an underage hacker from a wealthy family. It wasn’t until recently that I
started physically breaking into buildings. Before that, it was just hacking
into their systems. I suppose, when the time comes, I’ll just move into the
background again. I’ll miss breaking into buildings, but the hacking is fun,
too.”

Dropping down onto the bed beside her, Isaiah reached out
and caressed the lines of her tattoo, which was still a little tender from her
recent touch up. Spelled ink was like acid when it was first put in, and it
burned for days. Oddly enough, it looked fully healed almost immediately.

“Why’d you decide to move on to breaking into buildings?”
she asked.

“I wanted a challenge,” he admitted. “There was this part of
me that was bored with what I was doing. How old are you?” he asked, studying
her for a moment.

It was a valid question since hunters, much like vampires,
didn’t age. A hundred years from now, she’d still look the same. “Twenty-two.”

“God, you’re young,” Isaiah murmured.

She said nothing because it was a reminder of how awkward
their situation had just become. That morning, Isaiah wouldn’t have been
surprised to hear she was twenty-two. She had figured Isaiah was in his late
twenties and was just one of those rare people who’d achieved success early. He
actually looked younger than that, but she knew he couldn’t be. Now, she had no
clue how old Isaiah was.

“We should go back downstairs.” Isaiah let out a regretful
sigh. “As much as I want to keep you in bed all day, I need to help Drew with
the security footage from his father’s home.”

Phoenix stood and began gathering her clothes. “Was he
robbed?”

Isaiah had just slipped his pants on, and he hesitated. “He
was murdered,” he finally replied.

“Murdered? Poor Andrew! This must be really hard on him. He
talked about his father a lot, and I know he loved him, even though they weren’t
very close.”

Isaiah gave her a sad smile. “Yeah, he’s had a lot happen
lately. Don’t get me wrong. Drew is not one of my favorite people, but he’s
family, and he’s kind of been growing on me, as scary as that is to admit. I
guess that’s a good thing since you’re friends and we’re together now.”

She let out a defeated sigh. “This situation is a huge mess.
I’m a hunter and you’re a vampire. I shouldn’t even be here.” Pausing, she
stared at him helplessly, knowing that what she said was true, but not wanting
to leave.

He shrugged. “But you are here, and we’re going to figure
this out. Now, I get why you were so secretive about what’s going on with you,
but I need to know why you’re running. I’m pretty sure it has to do with
Hunter, but I can’t help you unless you tell me everything.”

“You don’t have to help me,” she told him, because helping
her was dangerous.

“Yes, I do have to help you,” he told her. “I’m not letting
you go.”

“Why?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Because I don’t want to let you go.”

“After only a few weeks of awkward flirting?” she teased,
not quite ready to admit she felt the same.

Isaiah moved toward her and put one finger under her chin to
tilt her head so he could kiss her. It was the briefest of touches—a taste of
his lips that left her wanting more.

With his mouth so close, his warm breath caressed her lips
when he spoke. “I’m much older than you are,” he began and then flashed a
sheepish smile. “I had no idea how condescending that would sound until the
words left my mouth.”

She laughed because she liked this side of Isaiah best.
While she found him sexy as hell when he was confident and in control, he was
irresistible when he was awkward. “Yes, that was not one of your best starts,
but I get that you’re trying to tell me you’ve lived longer and you’re wiser
than I am when it comes to relationships.”

Isaiah laughed. “That is definitely not what I was going to
say. It’s just that I’ve lived all this time, and I’ve never felt this way
about anyone. You may not have noticed this, but I’m kind of nerdy.”

“You hide it so well,” she teased.

Isaiah chuckled. “I’m not comfortable with people, but I am
with you. Most days, I’d rather just mess around on my computer, alone. I’m too
socially awkward to even get into online gaming that involves communicating
with others. If I go to a club with people, I play on my phone the whole time
because I can’t get away with bringing a laptop.”

She put a hand up to stop him. “I get it. You’re the
ultimate sexy nerd.”

“Sexy nerd?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know you’re a nerd,” she told him.

“I’m not sure many women consider me sexy,” he explained.

“Well, you are,” she assured him. “So, what does you being a
sexy nerd have to do with you wanting to be with me?”

“I don’t want to hide behind a computer with you. I just
want to be with you, and that’s never happened for me. Even when I thought you
were someone I could never have a future with, I still couldn’t leave you
alone. This morning, I was thinking you were human, and I was still determined
to find a way to make things work with you.”

There were so many things she wanted to say to Isaiah, but
she had no idea where to start. This also wasn’t the time. Isaiah needed to
help Andrew, and there was obviously some confusion about Andrew’s son that
they needed to clear up with his family.

“Let’s get this over with,” she said, pulling away from him,
even though that was the last thing she wanted to do.

After slinging a laptop bag over his shoulder, Isaiah laced
his fingers through hers and led her through the house. When they made it
downstairs, the room was filled with men who looked very similar to Isaiah, so
she assumed they were all vampires. There were also three women.

The butterflies started to flutter in her stomach, but
Isaiah seemed to sense her tension and slipped an arm around her shoulders.
“Just breathe with me, sweetheart,” he murmured softly. “I’m right here.”

She nodded and took a deep breath, working to keep her
anxiety at bay.

“Did you get everything sorted out?” one of the men asked
before turning to Phoenix with an annoyed expression. “I’m Justin, Isaiah’s
brother,” he added when the tall woman with straight black hair scowled at him.

Phoenix nodded. “Can we do introductions later?” she asked.
“Not to be rude, but I get the impression you’re all more concerned with how
you ended up with a hunter in your house.”

“I like her,” a petite blonde with hair to her ankles chimed
in.

“I might if she hadn’t abandoned her child,” a woman with
brown hair and enormous breasts added. Phoenix recognized her high-pitched
voice from the kitchen earlier.

“Where should we start?” Phoenix asked, deciding to ignore
the comment about abandoning her child.

Isaiah was already sitting in front of the laptop he’d
brought downstairs. “While I find the missing footage, why don’t you tell us
why you’re hiding?”

“Is it because of Hunter?” Andrew asked.

Phoenix had no clue what he was talking about. “Who is
Hunter?”

“That’s what Drew’s mother named the baby,” Isaiah
explained.

“You know, the baby you abandoned with Drew’s mother, the
serial killer,” the woman with the high voice snapped at her. “That ranks right
up there with leaving a baby in a dumpster.”

Phoenix was beginning to understand some of what they were
talking about, but before she could say anything, the woman with the
high-pitched voice continued. “In case you’re wondering, you can’t just walk in
here and decide you want to be his mother. You chose to give him up.”

“Wait!” Phoenix interrupted. “He isn’t my son. I’m a hunter,
so I can’t even have children. Female hunters are born without Fallopian tubes.
It’s like Mother Nature gave me a tubal ligation before birth.”

That was met with stunned silence. Even Isaiah had stopped
working on the computer to stare at her.

“If he’s not Drew’s, then who’s his father?” Isaiah asked.
“He’s obviously a Draksel.”

“I never said Andrew isn’t his father, just that I’m not his
mother,” Phoenix replied, frustrated that Andrew wasn’t helping her with this
explanation. He knew damn well who the boy’s mother was.

“Uh uh,” Andrew said with a shake of his head. “Sorry, babe,
but you were the only woman I was banging at the time.”

“Do you need to be that crude?” Caitlin asked with her hand
on her hip.

“Yes,” Andrew shot back. “I’m having a shit day, and I don’t
need to hear these lies. Just fucking tell the truth about Hunter so we can
move on. We boned a bunch of times. Then you disappeared, and nine months later
you dropped a baby off with my mom.”

“Oh, please cut the crap, Andrew,” Phoenix scoffed with a
wave of her hand. “Did you forget the little blonde you picked up at that club,
Andrei
? That blonde is my cousin, Shayla, and the baby was hers.” She
met his eyes. It’s not that she’d been jealous of Andrew sleeping with her
cousin, but finding out he’d gotten her cousin pregnant was too much,
especially with all the problems it had created for them. It had been the
catalyst for Hayden’s swan dive into the deep end of crazy.

Andrew’s eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his
head. “Fuck!” he shouted before slamming his fist into the bright yellow wall
hard enough to put a hole in it.

A distinguished looking vampire with the same dark brown
hair and icy blue eyes as Andrew and Justin stepped forward, and Phoenix got
the impression he was much older than he appeared. “Are you sure Andrei was the
name of the man who impregnated your cousin?” he asked with a slightly accented
voice.

“Yes. That’s what she told me,” Phoenix replied before
turning to Andrew. “It wasn’t you, was it?”

Andrew shook his head, “Sounds like my father hooked up with
your cousin.”

“Phoebe never knew about any of Andrei’s infidelities, so
she must have assumed the baby was Drew’s,” the distinguished vampire added.

“That mistake saved Hunter’s life,” Isaiah mused.

“You’re right. My mother would have slaughtered him had she
known he was my father’s child.” Andrew paled with that realization. “I have a
fucking brother.”

“You sound more excited about that than you did when you
thought you had a son,” Justin accused.

“I’d suck as a father, but I think I could do this older
brother thing,” Andrew mused. “I just can’t believe my father was that
careless. Sure, he cheated, but I always figured he was careful to avoid having
any extra children. The only reason he even agreed to have me was so my mom
wouldn’t grow old and die. Where is your cousin?”

Phoenix shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. I helped
hide her while she was pregnant and after the baby was born. Her brother would
have killed her. He’s always been violent and cruel, and he hates all things vampire.
In fact, when he first found out about the pregnancy, he tried to kill her. I
managed to convince him I was the one who was pregnant, which gave us time to
run before the local hunters heard about Shayla getting pregnant with a
vampire’s child. We don’t talk often now, and at the moment, I have no way of
getting in touch with her. I spoke to her a few days ago. After our call, she
shut off her phone, and I haven’t heard from her since.”

“Got it!” Isaiah said, turning the screen toward the
distinguished looking man and another man who looked related, but had lighter
hair with blond streaks. Andrew moved forward to watch the video of what was
probably his father’s murder.

“You shouldn’t see this,” she argued, putting a hand on
Andrew’s arm. His eyes warmed, and he reminded her of the friend she’d had all
those years ago, but that warmth was gone in the blink of an eye.

“I’m a killer,” he told her bluntly. “My mother raised me to
kill from the time I could walk. If I hadn’t killed her, she’d be doing the
same with Hunter.”